An 11-year-old boy from Marquette, Michigan, has died after he was found by his mother hanging in his closet and his mother is blaming the death on a social media prank.
According to Katrina Goss, 41, her son Tysen Benz attempted to take his life after his girlfriend faked her suicide in a twisted "social media prank.
Tysen, who has been described as an active, athletic kid, attempted to commit suicide on March 14 but his mother found him and, together with her other sons, she performed CPR on him while awaiting the ambulance. He eventually died in the University of Michigan's hospital in Ann Arbor this Tuesday after being on life support for three weeks.
Goss told the Daily News that her son had been secretly dating a 13-year-old girl and he contacted her constantly using a phone he bought with his money without his mother's knowledge. She alleges that on the night her son attempted suicide, the girl decided it would be funny to do a prank where she pretended she had committed suicide.
"I don't know if it was texting or Snapchat or Instagram," Goss said. "(She said) 'Oh, I’m going to kill myself,' and then used a friend’s computer to say she’d died when really it was her doing it."
Goss is calling for the friends of her son who were involved in the prank to be held responsible for the result of their actions because, though young, they were old enough to know and make the right choices. She said:
"I feel like, yeah, they’re young and all that… you’re completely knowledgeable of your choices and you know right from wrong. You can make your own choices. I don’t feel like it should be taken lightly."
Capt. Mike Kohler of the Marquette Police Department confirmed that an investigation into Tyson's death is ongoing but he refused to comment on the mother's allegations.
"If criminal charges are going to come out of this, they’ll be forwarded to the prosecutor’s office for review," Kohler told The Post.
Goss, who has two other sons, a 10-year-old and a 14-year old, spoke of her dead son and described him as a vivacious kid who wouldn't ordinarily consider taking his life.She blamed cyber bullying for what happened to him.
"He was not a kid who was all sad and depressed and had all these problems. For him to do that so suddenly just because of a girl, whatever she said ... that just shows the effects of social media pranking and bullying," She said to Daily News
He was probably the most amazing kid that you would ever know. He was in every sport, he was super social, he had tons of friends and every single person who knew him loved him … [He] was the last person who would choose this choice, which I think was an impulsive choice," Goss said in an interview with NY Post on Thursday.
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